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1960 Pre-Embargo Cuban Montecristo No. 2

B-Dub & Easy-E on Saturday 9/22/12 @ 3:00pm
Modus Hoperandi & Room-Temperature Tap Water
(Photo documentation and video evidence to follow.)

This was a gift from my boss, upon his return from San Francisco, CA. He purchased it at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill for $244. When he presented it to me I feigned excitement, sure that this was a fake. After all, it is so rare, and happens to be one of the most counterfeited brands and vitolas EVER. Most of the photos are taken at Easy's pad, where I was showing him this ridiculous specimen. However, over the next couple weeks, extensive research seemed to bear out its legitimacy. I can always expound on the many reasons why I doubted this cigars heritage, and how I was ultimately convinced that it was authentic. But for the time being, this thread will be focused on reviewing and sharing the experience I had with this cigar.

Keep in mind that this cigar is 52 years old, and has become somewhat damaged over the years. There is no band, and there is a chunk of wrapper missing near the middle of the barrel. The foot is also damaged in 2 places, and I re-adhered the peeling wrapper with a deft lick and stick (okay guys, keep it clean). After clipping this torpedo, I noticed a fairly loose draw and almost no pre-light taste or aroma. This cigar had a humble beginning.

I pushed humid breath back through the barrel of the cigar from the foot end to ensure that this cigar had enough moisture so as not to burn too quickly. I figured that with the loose draw, the cigar probably wouldn't expand too much and split the barrel. I also wanted to be sure that it wouldn't burn too quickly. If it was real, I wanted this cigar to last as long as possible.

As I torched the foot with my Perdomo Thundra triple-torch lighter, the cigar lit quickly and seemed to burn deeply. Easy-E noticed a "deep red glow" to the ember, "almost reminiscent of an old-fashioned oil lamp" in his own words. Immediately after I began to puff on this cigar, I knew it was genuine!

There was a touch of white pepper at first. Old leather, light wood and the taste of almonds. Not toasted almonds, mind you. The smoke was incredibly smoothe and chewy, and Easy-E declared that he wanted to actually swallow the smoke it was so good! (We were definitely passing this cigar back and forth, sharing what is almost certain to be a Once-In-A-Lifetime opportunity to enjoy this delicacy.) No, the almond flavor was that of raw almonds, sliced open and chewed slowly; that pure white almond flavor just permeated through and through. (At this point, with this extensively aged and mellowed cigar, we had switched to plain room-temperature tap water to avoid masking or altering our ability to really taste this cigar's profile.)

At this very moment, Easy-E is at my side and making me tell you guys about my Man Cave setup. Normally, I will only smoke the best cigars in a warm, indoor, still-air environment where the smoke can really linger and sweeten a little bit before I really attempt to take in every nuance. Missus Dub has graciously allowed me to have this sanctuary in our extra downstairs office area, so long as I open the window and turn on the window fan. This gently creates a negative air-flow around the closed door sill, without overly disrupting my smoking environment, and without polluting the rest of our house. However, on this occasion, and with Missus Dub absent from the scene of the crime, I neglected to engage the window fan. We allowed ourselves to be trapped in this glorious hot-box haze of yesteryear Cuban goodness. The room note was unbelievable.

This aged delicacy produced plenty of soft smoke, with a beautiful white ash which was extremely even and held well despite being a little flaky. Getting into this mellow cigar, the draw remained easy and the flavor was almost bland... it was so smoothe. There was a bready element, like a light oyster cracker, in the first third. But the "barnyard" character was there from the very beginning, which instantly set me off with excitement!

Around the halfway point, the cigar suddenly picked up strength. What had started out very mellow was now a solid medium to medium/full in flavor. I really don't directly retrohale when smoking cigars, perhaps because most of what I smoke is strong enough as it is. But what I will do is allow the smoke to linger in the air for a moment or two, breathe it in deeply as I examine the aromatics, and then exhale through my nose to get that slight bite or burn on my nostrils. I actually enjoy this! And this cigar is now delivering a noticeable sting.

This pickup in strength as the cigar burned down was very interesting, and I feel that she was everything but one-dimensional. What a unique opportunity to log the profile of a long-ago Montecristo! I am so glad to be able to mentally file this away for comparison with today's newly released Monte's. A very thoughtful gift, to be sure, and I really appreciate that my boss picked this up for me, instead of an entire box of more recent product. It was truly the smoke of a lifetime!

Brentlypooh aka
Puffy Smurf aka
B-Dub, Cigar Ambassador

What an awesome opportunity!
Thanks for sharing, it sounds like an awesome smoke.

Fantastic review and videos. Thank you for sharing that experience

There are a couple of places authentic cubans can be found in SF...

I'll never grow tired of watching B-Dub swim through the smoke of a good cigar. Quite the signature move I must say. Kind of him to have shared the experience with this cigar. Thanks B-Dub!

Nice